SAD CHANNING

Channing Tatum Has “Never Considered [Himself] a Very Smart Person”

Channing Tatum is a bonafide movie star whose films have earned over $1.5 billion at the box office. He has segued his past life as a stripper into a gritty Steven Soderbergh comedy-drama so successful that it is getting a sequel. And his excitement about his job seems so genuine—like a guy from a blue-collar background who is actually pumped to be a part of Hollywood—that one can’t watch him in an interview without getting some kind of smiley contact high. So it is somewhat sad to hear our movie friend reflect on his disheartening youth to the New York Times.

“I have never considered myself a very smart person, for a lot of reasons,” the actor revealed during a discussion about his struggles with A.D.H.D. and dyslexia as a child. “Not having early success on that one path messes with you. You get lumped in classes with kids with autism and Down Syndrome, and you look around and say, Okay, so this is where I’m at. Or you get put in the typical classes and you say, All right, I’m obviously not like these kids either. So you’re kind of nowhere. You’re just different. The system is broken.”

In Vanity Fair’s July 2013 cover story, Tatum told V.F. contributing editor Rich Cohen that, to this day, he is still a slow reader. “If I have a script I’m going to read it five times slower than any other actor, but I’ll be able to tell you everything in it,” he said. “It kills me that there are standardized tests geared towards just one kind of child.”

Tatum’s rise to stardom is more impressive considering that, in addition to his learning difficulties, he did not have an artistic outlet growing up. “Some people pass down music to their kids,” he tells the New York Times, “but I couldn’t tell you what my mom’s or dad’s favorite song is. So when I started going out into the world, I was drawn to people who knew about movies, art, even fashion. I went to New York and did the whole modeling thing, and I just learned everything I could from anybody who knew something I didn’t.”

Because of his own meandering path to Hollywood, Tatum said that he advises other aspiring actors to follow a similarly non-traditional path. “[W]hen people tell me they want to act, I’m like, Okay, if you want to act, go see America. If you can afford gas money, go talk to people and see how they really live. Sure, you can go to theater class at a young age. . .I would have loved to learn things earlier than I did, but then maybe I wouldn’t have gone and done the things that gave me insight into what it is to be human—to have fears and wants.”